The new century cookery book

1349. Choux-de-Mer d la Florentine ( Seakale , Florentine Style). — Trim and wash a basket of seakale ; cook it in plenty of salted water and the juice of one lemon. When done take up and drain on a sieve. Put a slice of toasted bread on a dish, arrange the cooked seakale nicely upon this. Sauce over carefully with a layer of well reduced bechamel sauce ; sprinkle over some grated cheese (equal quantities of Parmesan and Gruyere). Season with white pepper and a pinch or two of paprika and cayenne. Pour over a few drops of melted butter and dredge lightly with a few bread-crumbs. Place the dish in a very hot oven long enough to brown the top. Serve at once as vegetable entremets or savoury. 1350. Chou-de-Mer d la Hollandaise ( Seakale with Hollandaise Sauce). — Wash, pare and trim a basket of seakale, put a tablespoonful of flour in a stewpan (large enough to hold the kale), dilute with water, place in it the seakale, add more water to cover, and salt to taste. Boil till tender. Take up, drain well, and dish up. Sauce over with Hollandaise sauce (No. 208), and serve. 1351. Choux d la Lilloise. — Small portions of parboiled cabbage, drained, slightly pressed, and fried in butter, seasoned with chopped onions, parsley, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Dished up and served with a suitable brown gravy. 1352. Choux farcis au Beurre. — 2 medium-sized cabbages, i lb. mushrooms, 1 lb. fat bacon, ^ lb. fresh bread-crumbs, 4 yolks of eggs, ijr lb. sausage-meat, 2 oz. of butter, 1 onion, 1 clove, chopped parsley, pepper, salt, die., 1 quart of stock, 1 gill brown sauce , No. 236). Remove the loose leaves from the cabbages, trim and wash well, plunge into cold water containing salt and a small piece of soda or moist sugar, parboil it for fifteen minutes, strain and cool in fresh water, press them gently, cut in twos lengthways, remove the stalky parts, and put the cabbages on a cloth. Prepare a stuffing with the sausage-meat, the mushrooms finely chopped, the bread-crumbs, about a dessertspoonful of chopped parsley, and the egg-yolks ; season with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Mix also an ounce of butter with this preparation, and fill the centre part of the cabbages with this. Shape them neatly, enfold them in thinly cut slices of fat bacon, tie carefully with string, place them in a stewpan or deep saute-pan, add the stock, a small onion stuck with a clove, and an ounce of butter * set it in the oven, and let braise gently for about an hour and a half ; baste from time to time. Drain the cabbages, remove the fat, and dish up. Take the fat off the gravy, add the brown sauce, and reduce to half-glaze ; strain over the cabbages, and serve. 1353. Choux-Itaves a la Menagere. — Peel some kohl-rabis (a species of turnip), cut each in quarters and pare neatly (olive shapes), blanch and drain. Cook them in nut-brown butter and finish stewing in a light brown sauce ; season and serve. 1354. Choux de Bruxelles sautes au Beurre ( Brussels Sprouts). — Trim and wash one pound of Brussels sprouts ; boil them in salted water in the usual manner. When done take up, drain, and let them get cool. Melt an ounce and a half of fresh butter in a saute or frying pan ; put in the sprouts, season with pepper and a pinch of grated nutmeg, toss the sprouts in the pan over a bright fire for about ten minutes, dish up, sprinkle over a little chopped parsley,, and serve.